Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41:
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
With all the chaos and conflict around him, there is the major miracle Jesus performs in calming the storm. This is incredible, and leaves the disciples awestruck with wonderment about who Jesus is.
Surely we would welcome such a mighty miracle now, that the storms around us might be stilled, the wind and waves pushed back, and tranquility be restored. If only the world might hear those words, “Peace! Be still.”
But welcome as the major miracle would be, this morning’s Lesson also has within it a minor miracle, almost unnoticed in such a dramatic story. And the minor miracle is this: that before Jesus miraculously calmed the storm, he was able to miraculously sleep through it first.
And maybe that’s the secret. That the one who can still the storms of the world must first be able to soundly rest through them. That the one who can summon the world’s chaos to peace must first have peace within his or her own self. That in order to perform a major miracle one must first be able to perform a minor one.
A full night’s rest in these troubled times may indeed feel like a miracle now. And it is. Resting in God, trusting in the boat, not being shaken to frenzy and terror amidst all today’s tumult, keeping peace within. These are the miracles we need now. And so may they happen.
May we have the mighty power to calm the storms around us; but first, may we have the minor power to calm the storms within us as well.
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